Microsoft to Open New AI Hub in London

Microsoft AI, an artificial intelligence (AI)-focused organization formed by the tech company in March, is opening a new AI hub in London.

The Microsoft AI London hub will work with teams across Microsoft and its partners, including OpenAI, to create language models, their supporting infrastructure and tooling for foundation models, Mustafa Suleyman, executive vice president and CEO of Microsoft AI, said in a Monday (April 8) blog post.

“I’m deeply aware of the extraordinary talent pool and AI ecosystem in the U.K., and I’m excited to make this commitment to the U.K. on behalf of Microsoft AI,” Suleyman said in the post.

“I know — through my close work with thought leaders in the U.K. government, business community and academia — that the country is committed to advancing AI responsibly and with a safety-first commitment to drive investment, innovation and economic growth,” Suleyman added. “Our decision to open this hub in the U.K. reflects this ambition.”

The new AI hub will be led by Jordan Hoffman, who was previously with Inflection and DeepMind, and staffed by Microsoft AI team members based in the company’s London Paddington office, according to the post.

Microsoft will also be posting job openings and actively hiring in the coming weeks and months, the post said.

The new hub joins Microsoft’s existing presence in the U.K., which includes the Microsoft Research Cambridge lab and an investment of 2.5 billion pounds (about $3.2 billion) to train the U.K. workforce for the AI era and build AI infrastructure.

Suleyman, who co-founded both Inflection and DeepMind, joined Microsoft in March to head its consumer AI unit. This marked the first time all of Microsoft’s consumer AI business was brought together under a single leader.

In addition, Microsoft hired most of the staff of Inflection.

On April 1, the U.K. and the United States pledged to work together on safe AI development.

The countries inked a deal in which their AI Safety Institutes will collaborate on tests for the most advanced AI models. The two countries also agreed to forge similar partnerships with other nations to foster AI safety around the world and to conduct at least one joint test on a publicly accessible model.